Tank Girl

 

One of ten children born to a poor Ukrainian family in 1905, Mariya Oktyabrskaya worked in a cannery and then as a telephone operator. She married Ilya Oktyabrsky, a Soviet army officer in 1925, after which she took an interest in military matters. She got involved in a “Military Wives Council” and was trained as an army nurse. She also learned how to use weapons and drive vehicles. According to Mariya, “Marry a serviceman, and you serve in the army: an officer's wife is not only a proud woman, but also a responsible title.” 

 

At the start of the war, Mariya was evacuated to Siberia. Her husband went to fight on the Eastern Front. He was killed near Kyiv, Ukraine, in August 1941. The news of his death did not reach her until 1943. Angered by his death, she became determined to fight the Germans to avenge it.  She sold all of their belongings to buy a tank, writing to Stalin the following: 

 

My husband was killed in action defending the motherland. I want revenge on the fascist dogs for his death . . . . For this purpose, I’ve deposited all my personal savings—50,000 rubles—to the National Bank in order to buy a tank. I kindly ask to name the tank ‘Fighting Girlfriend’ and to send me to the front line as a driver of said truck. 

 

Stalin wrote back and said yes.

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Although the army viewed her ability to handle a tank with skepticism, she proved during her five months of training that she could drive, shoot, and throw grenades, skills she had learned from her husband. By this time, Mariya was 38 years old. After her training, she was posted to the 26th Guards Tank Brigade, part of the 2nd Guards Tank Corps, in September 1943 as a driver and mechanic. She named her tank "Fighting Girlfriend," the words emblazoned on the turret of her T-34 tank. Though many of her fellow tankers regarded her as a publicity stunt and a joke, their attitudes changed when Mariya began fighting in Smolensk

 

She fought in her first tank battle in October 1943, maneuvering in intense fighting. She and her fellow crew members destroyed machine gun nests and artillery guns. When her tank was hit by gunfire, Mariya, disregarding orders, leaped out of her tank and repaired it under heavy fire. She was promoted to the rank of sergeant. The tank battalion commander cited her example, telling his command, “Fight as the tankers of the Fighting Girlfriend fight.”

 

A month later, Soviet forces captured the town of Novaje Siało in the region of Vitebsk during a night battle. During this attack, Mariya enhanced her reputation as a skilled tank driver. On November 17, she took part in an assault on the German positions near Novaje Siało. But a German artillery shell exploded against her tank’s tracks, halting her advance. She and a fellow crewman jumped out to repair the track, while other crew members provided cover from the turret. Eventually, they fixed the track, and her tank rejoined the main unit several days later. 

Two months later in January 1944, Mariya fought in another night attack as part of the Leningrad–Novgorod offensive. The attack took place at the village of Šviedy near Vitebsk. During the battle, she drove her tank near the German defenses and destroyed resistance in trenches and machine gun nests. The tank crew also destroyed a German self-propelled gun, after which her tank was hit by a German anti-tank shell, again in the tracks, and was immobilized. Mariya immediately got out of the tank and began to repair the track, amid fierce small arms and artillery fire. She managed to repair the track but was hit in the head by shell fragments and lost consciousness. After the battle, she was transported to a Soviet military field hospital near Kiev and then to a military hospital in Smolensk, Russia. 

She remained in a coma for two months before finally dying on March 15. Her tank was destroyed three times, yet it was always replaced by a new one with the same name in commemoration of Mariya’s memory. She was buried with military honors at the Heroes Remembrance Gardens in Smolensk. The following August, Mariya was posthumously made a Hero of the Soviet Union, the highest honor in the Soviet military, in recognition of her bravery in her final battle.